The Hidden Dragon of the Baek Family
Not bad at all.
Across from her, Seo Jua puffed out her chest and lifted her head with proud defiance. Her presence carried such mature dignity that it was still hard to believe she was only a year older. Baek Cheong kept a faint smile on her lips as she quietly drew spiritual energy from deep within her dantian. 'I'm not going easy on you.'
She had only sheathed her One Star Sword earlier to avoid endangering the growth monster's life. That didn't mean she had any intention of sending her opponent away unscathed.
Soon, an outer sect elder standing at the edge of the stone platform raised the jade plaque in his hand.
"Begin the first spar of the Qi Condensation division!"
The instant the elder's command rang out, Baek Cheong unleashed every bit of her spiritual energy from her dantian at once.
A chilling mist rose as ten majestic ice dragons materialized, circling their master with glacial power.
A ripple of astonishment spread through the disciples watching casually from outside the platform.
Ignoring the murmurs, Baek Cheong split her divine sense and tethered each dragon with invisible threads. In the next breath, all ten ice dragons surged toward Seo Jua from every direction at once.
"As expected, it's Ice Dragon Shatter!"
Far from flinching, Seo Jua shouted with eager anticipation. She had watched Baek Cheong's signature move clearly from afar during the preliminaries. She crossed her arms fiercely, the golden jade bracelets dangling from her wrists clattering together. A torrent of earth-attribute spiritual energy exploded from her palms.
Soil erupted from the stone beneath her feet, swirling into a massive turtle-shell dome that completely encased her.
The ten ice dragons slammed into the earthen barrier from all sides. Ice and earth collided with a deafening roar, sending thick shards flying in every direction. White steam and dust billowed across the platform, obscuring the center completely.
"Did it end in a single strike...?"
"Not yet. The dust hasn't settled."
Slowly the cloud began to clear. Through the haze, Seo Jua's silhouette emerged, standing tall and unharmed. The earthen shell was cracked and pitted in several places, but it had held firm.
As expected of an earth-attribute technique. Baek Cheong gave a small nod. Earth spells were naturally sturdy, and both techniques were first-rank high-grade. When two spells of equal power clashed head-on, Ice Dragon Shatter alone couldn't shatter the defense.
As the earthen mass crumbled away, Seo Jua flicked her sleeves with a sharp motion. Her nose tilted even higher as she lifted her chin with pride.
"Hmph! That level is nowhere near enough to defeat this lady!"
Her crisp voice brimmed with the confidence of a Hosan Seo family prodigy. She looked utterly triumphant, not a trace of fear anywhere.
But in the middle of her boast, a single droplet of water landed on her cheek with a soft plop.
"...?"
Seo Jua wiped it away in confusion, then slowly raised her head toward the sky. At some point, dark clouds had gathered low overhead, completely covering the stone platform.
The light drizzle quickly turned into a heavy downpour. Even as her robe became thoroughly soaked, Seo Jua couldn't understand what was happening.
"A rain-summoning technique...?"
She knew of spells that called forth rain, but she hadn't sensed Baek Cheong chanting any incantation or forming any hand seals. Her confusion only deepened.
Narrowing her eyes against the sheets of rain, Seo Jua looked toward Baek Cheong and flinched. Her opponent had once again summoned ten ice dragons. This time, however, they weren't charging forward. Instead, they drifted lazily in a wide circle around Baek Cheong.
The falling rain froze instantly around their bodies. Unfrozen droplets shattered into tiny ice crystals that slid down their scales. As they drank in the rainwater, the dragons grew visibly larger.
The once-slender creatures now possessed thick, powerful bodies that radiated an almost mystical presence.
I always thought rain summoning was useless.
It was only a first-rank spell that produced a drizzle, after all. She had rarely bothered with it since she wasn't a spirit beast handler. Yet when combined with Ice Dragon Shatter, the spiritually charged rain became nourishment that let the dragons grow on their own.
The watching disciples stared up at the swirling ice dragons in the rain, completely transfixed.
Seo Jua finally snapped back to her senses. If she allowed this to continue, she had no idea what kind of humiliation awaited her. Bracing her legs, she thrust both arms forward.
"Th-Thick Earth Shatter!"
Just as she tried to hurl an earthen mass at Baek Cheong, one of the rain-swirling ice dragons shot forward and smashed into it. The rising soil was torn apart and scattered like dust.
"What?!"
Before she could recover, another dragon charged straight at her face. She hastily summoned an earth wall. Even though earth techniques excelled at defense, the thickened ice dragon punched straight through it.
Crack!
The dragon's momentum was spent piercing the wall, so it stopped just short of hitting her. As Seo Jua staggered back, swallowing a scream, an even larger dragon flew toward her.
This time she concentrated her spiritual energy on a single thick panel instead of spreading it wide. The wall held with a heavy thud. Seo Jua let out a brief sigh of relief that her defense had endured.
But the relief didn't last. Eight more ice dragons still circled Baek Cheong, growing larger and stronger with every passing second as they absorbed the rain. Worse, her dantian was already running dry from repeatedly using a first-rank high-grade technique. Her spiritual energy was drying up at an alarming rate.
This lady's dantian is already...
A chill ran down her spine as the realization hit her. Baek Cheong had summoned ten Ice Dragon Shatters twice. Twenty first-rank high-grade spells. The number was simply impossible. Even one such technique consumed a significant amount of energy, yet Baek Cheong stood there completely composed, still leisurely controlling eight more dragons in the rain.
Just how vast was her dantian?
Only then did Seo Jua truly begin to grasp what kind of opponent she was facing.
I can't lose like this. Not so pathetically.
As a daughter of the Hosan Seo family, she refused to collapse here. She quickly pulled a jade bottle from her sleeve, opened it, and swallowed an Extreme Grade Spirit Recovery Pill in one gulp. Fresh spiritual energy flooded back into her depleted dantian.
Gritting her teeth, she summoned Thick Earth Shatter again and again against the massive dragons. She blocked the third by focusing energy on one side. She endured the fourth by layering multiple dense walls.
Just a little longer... just a little more...!
The fifth dragon twisted its enormous body and charged. Seo Jua poured every last drop of energy into one final wall.
Crunch!
She somehow stopped the fifth, but that was her limit. Her meridians screamed in protest as she staggered.
"Hngh...!"
Seo Jua's knees finally gave out. She collapsed onto the stone platform, her soaked robe clinging heavily to her body while her golden jade bracelets trembled faintly in the rain.
Confirming her opponent's defeat, Baek Cheong glanced at the five ice dragons still swimming through the downpour. They had grown large enough to resemble young imugi. An ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator would have fallen to even one normal-sized dragon, yet Seo Jua had endured five of these enlarged beasts.
Not bad.
Baek Cheong sent the dragons soaring toward the dark clouds overhead. The five massive creatures twisted upward against the rain, ascending like dragons seeking heaven before vanishing into the black mass.
She withdrew all her techniques at once. The clouds dispersed. The dragons' remains scattered as countless tiny ice crystals that drifted down like snow. The heavy rain transformed into gentle flakes that settled softly across the platform.
The mysterious sight left both the platform and the surrounding stands in stunned silence.
The outer sect elder finally recovered enough to strike his jade plaque.
"Winner, Baek Cheong of the Yeonha Baek family!"
Baek Cheong bowed politely and recalled her Five Elements Umbrella. Her robe remained perfectly dry despite the fierce rain as she stepped down from the platform.
The disciples packed into the spectator seats remained speechless for a long time. Eventually, one of them murmured while reflecting on the scene.